The BBC is investigating the existence of child abuse photos on Facebook and the network’s tools for finding and removing them. Its stance on the matter, based on what it has seen so far, is that Facebook’s current manner of operation is insufficient.
During the investigation, Facebook ended up asking the BBC to send it some of the potential child abuse photos that were under discussion. When it did, the company reported the BBC to the police and cancelled further interviews.
It is against the law for anyone to distribute images of child exploitation. When the BBC sent us such images we followed our industry’s standard practice and reported them to CEOP. We also reported the child exploitation images that had been shared on our own platform. This matter is now in the hands of the authorities. – Facebook
The BBC says it has reported many images to Facebook, but over 80% remained live on the site. Since then, Facebook claims “all items that were illegal or against our standards” have been removed.
Damian Collins of the Commons media committee didn’t agree with the BBC being reported and said the news organization is working to “help clean up the network.”
